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What is a low carb diet, really? When can a low carb diet be beneficial? Should everyone follow a low carb diet? Or, can a low carb diet ruin your health? After reading this eBook, you’ll be able to understand the many factors that play into how a person handles a low carbohydrate diet, and whether or not their health will improve on such a plan.

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Arsenic in rice: how concerned should you be?

If you knew there was arsenic in your food, would you eat it? More importantly, would you serve it to your children?

Recently, Consumer Reports Magazine released their analysis of arsenic levels in rice products, and the results were concerning. Popular rice products including white rice, brown rice, organic rice baby cereal, and rice breakfast cereals, were all found to contain arsenic, a potent carcinogen that can also be harmful to a child’s developing brain.

“In virtually every product tested, we found measurable amounts of total arsenic in its two forms. We found significant levels of inorganic arsenic, which is a carcinogen, in almost every product category, along with organic arsenic, which is less toxic but still of concern.”

The study not only found a significant amount of arsenic in many rice products on the market, but also that arsenic levels in the blood directly increase with greater rice consumption.(1) Several products tested had more arsenic in each serving than the 5 parts per billion (ppb) limit for adults set by the EPA as safe. (2)

What’s worse, many of these arsenic-containing rice products are marketed to children and infants as “health foods”, and children are far more susceptible to the dangerous impacts of arsenic exposure. (3, 4, 5) Research suggests that high levels of arsenic exposure during childhood are associated with neurobehavioral problems as well as cancer and lung disease later in life. (6) This means parents must be especially careful to avoid serving their children food with significant levels of arsenic.

While many of my readers follow a strict Paleo diet and couldn’t care less about arsenic in rice, there are many more who are more liberal in their diet and consume white rice as a “safe” starch. In fact, rice is often recommended by well-educated bloggers such as Paul Jaminet as a component of a perfectly healthy and enjoyable diet. I personally eat white rice on occasion and feel it is a safe starch for those who tolerate it. But now that there is a new issue with rice consumption, one that has nothing to do with carbohydrates, does that mean we should avoid it entirely?

White rice can be a “safe” starch

I don’t think it’s necessary to completely eliminate rice from the diet. The EPA’s 5 ppb per day limit on arsenic is probably what we should shoot for in our diets, in light of current evidence. Many of the white rice products tested had fairly low levels of arsenic, and in the context of a few servings a week for an adult, it’s probably not an issue. As for very young children and infants, I don’t recommend serving them rice products in general, so they shouldn’t be exposed to arsenic from rice anyway. Pregnant women may want to be cautious about their rice intake, and minimize their exposure to arsenic to protect their developing fetus; finding another safe starch to replace rice during pregnancy would be wise.

So if you choose to purchase white rice, buy a brand made in California like Lundberg; their California White Basmati Rice has only 1.3 to 1.6 ppb arsenic per serving (1/4 cup uncooked), well below the safe limit. In addition, rinsing the rice before cooking and boiling it in a high water-to-rice ratio can help reduce the arsenic content significantly. (7) So if you want to keep white rice as a part of your diet, I recommend looking for a safe brand like Lundberg and rinsing the rice thoroughly before cooking in a large quantity of water; this should be adequate to make rice a safe food to eat in moderation.

Brown rice: Not a health food!

Brown rice, on the other hand, has significantly more arsenic than white rice and should be avoided or consumed rarely. Some of the brown rice brands tested contained at least 50% more than the safe limit per serving, and a few even had nearly double the safe limit. (PDF with complete details of test results) Note that some of the worst offenders for arsenic are made from brown rice: processed rice products like brown rice syrup, brown rice pasta, rice cakes and brown rice crisps. These processed products are commonly consumed by those following a “healthy” whole grain rich or gluten-free diet, but they clearly pose a significant risk of arsenic overexposure, especially if a person eats more than one serving per day. Obviously, brown rice is not a food that should be a dietary staple, or even eaten on a regular basis.

#Arsenic: another reason to prefer white rice over brown?

Aside from having a higher arsenic content, there are other reasons to avoid brown rice: it’s harder to digest and nutrient absorption is likely inferior to white rice because of phytates in the rice bran. (8) Despite a higher nutrient content of brown rice compared to white rice, the anti-nutrients present in brown rice reduce the bioavailability of any vitamins and minerals present. (9) Plus, brown rice also reduces dietary protein and fat digestibility compared to white rice. (10) In short, brown rice is not a health food for a variety of reasons, and a higher arsenic content is simply another reason to avoid eating it.

No food is completely safe or without some level of contamination risk: vegetables make up 24 percent of our arsenic exposure and tap water can legally contain 10 ppb arsenic per liter (some systems even exceed the legal limit.) (11) So while rice may contribute an unsafe level of arsenic, it’s certainly not the only source in our diet, and we need to be cautious about demonizing an entire class of food based on a soundbite from a news story. While I don’t think rice is a necessary component of a healthy diet, I do think it can be incorporated safely as a source of starch: just be sure to pay attention to the brand you’re buying, as well as your method of preparation.

Is rice a major staple in your diet? Will you continue eating it, or is this arsenic report enough to put you off rice altogether? Share your opinion in the comments below!

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“No food is completely safe or without some level of contamination risk”

There you go. So why would you avoid a food just because it has toxins in it, if EVERY food has toxins in it? You either eat food with arsenic in it, or you starve to death. That’s the reality of it. It bothers me, because I am scared of toxic chemicals. But I had to accept it and everyone else does, too.

Has there been any change on the stance of brown rice? I’ve noticed babies who are allowed to begin consuming solids, brown rice prepared as a ground cereal is recommended as a starter food by many websites.

I would recommend that people do more research on the subject, because what I originally learned is that the rice with high heavy metals is from China specifically. Texas and California rice seems to have the lowest amounts.

The idea that Chinese rice is highly contaminated and absorbed by the rice plants makes a lot of sense because it’s a country that is highly industrial and arsenic is the unfortunate bi-product of making “stuff”. Here’s a good site: natrualnews.com. This website is also abundant with other useful info on this and other health issues.

Thank you for sharing the info about arsenic. White rice is garbage. God makes brown rice. In reality, all real rice is “brown”, having the nutrient rich husk on it. “White” rice is a manmade product that loses most of its nutrients, and is essentially sugar. To imply in this misleading article that white rice is good and brown rice bad due to arsenic levels is dubious, and toxic. The issue is reducing arsenic. This sounds like saying drink Gatorade because tap water was found to have chlorine in it. Drink clean spring water. Eat clean brown rice.

We are a family of 7 and on average we eat about 25lbs of white rice every month and a half. We either get our rice from the Asian market or from Costco. Is there other brands I could look for that comes in 25lb bags, that would be safe for my family to enjoy?

We get Lundgren organic basmati white rice from azurestandard.com in a 25lb bag. It does come in smaller packages. We go through a lot of rice and enjoy the savings of buying in bulk. Azure delivers in many stats via truck. Hopefully there is a drop-site near you!

My local Costco store had 25-pound bags of Lundberg brand short grain brown rice grown in California — very good rice.

Brown rice has a little more arsenic than white rice, but maybe that extra arsenic is embedded in the fiber that passes through the body undigested. If that’s the case, the extra arsenic might be excreted in the stool rather than absorbed into the body. Because brown rice is much more nutritious, I’m sticking with it.

I believe white rice is more beneficial. Brown rice has more nutrients but is not as easily digested. It has been said that since brown rice is harder to digest we actually get more nutrients from white rice.

There is much info available on how to prepare brown rice so that it is not only highly digestible but retains all nutrients. (Unlike white rice.) It has to do with a method of soaking where you save the soaking water, then dilute and re use over and over to the point where the necessary enzymes are developed that will make brown rice nutritious after all.

Golden Rice as a crop has been a total failure – You wont find much of it in Asian countries or in Africa. Crops are not big and the uptake/acceptance of golden rice is very poor… not much of an issue.

I don’t eat a lot of white rice and if I do, it is usually in sushi. I do, however, feed it to my dog when she ate something that upsets her stomach and has gooey poo. Since dogs are a lot lighter than people, their “safe” limits may be considerably less than people. I read this more out of curiousity and Dr. Kresser has posted some real numbers about the concentration of arsenic. I will use those to assess the dangers that white rice poses to my dog.

“Rice (Oryza sativa) is a staple crop for half of the world’s population, but it can accumulate high levels of arsenic. When consumed over time, arsenic can lead to cancer and skin lesions. But the plant has its own mechanisms for fighting arsenic accumulation, according to a paper published today (October 20) in PNAS. Researchers based in Korea and Japan have shown that a rice transporter protein called OsABCC1 prevents arsenic from damaging plant tissues by sequestering the element in vacuoles. Because of this, potentially harmful arsenic remains in these cellular waste containers rather than building up in rice grains.”

I avoided grains for four years and it amplified the major depressive disorder I’ve had for 30 years. I am now off antidepressants by eating whole grains at every meal. I have an autoimmune disease and I am dairy and gluten intolerant. I eat brown rice every day. I have messed up my health and had a much lower quality of life by jumping on the paleo bandwagon. Until there is conclusive evidence linking brown rice with adverse health, I will keep doing what is finally working for me.

they say that it is ok to eat rice with arsenic in it because its such a small amount but other foods also have arsenic in them too like apple juice so if your getting a small does in your rice and your juice and other foods you eat dont that build up in your system? seems like after awhile that little turns into a lot.

I will continue to eat rice, especially brown rice, which is healthier than white rice due to its richer fiber and vitamin content. Although arsenic is present in rice, the amount is too small to have any practical effect. The lifetime risk of developing cancer from daily consumption of rice is on the order of 1 in 50,000. Compare that to your overall lifetime risk of developing cancer, about 1 in 3. See http://ataridogdaze.com/recipe/arsenic-rice.html

You are misrepresenting the rice arsenic issue. The reason Americans are eating brown rice with elevated arsenic levels is because the tested varieties came from the cesspool of the Mississippi River delta basin. When equal style brown rice was tested from rice fields in California which are not attached to a filthy river, the elevated levels of arsenic disappeared completely. Pretty straight forward reasoning there. But then it has to make you wonder about other things from the Mississippi River region…including the Gulf of Mexico fisheries! White rice is as nutritional as corn. If I don’t eat brown rice, I eat no rice. White rice is not exactly tasty unless drenched in something else to make it palatable. That is not true of brown rice. But it has nevertheless been eliminated as part of my grain free regiment…

The problem isn’t just with Mississippi River pollution, but with rice fields that were formerly used for cotton production. Arsenic was used on cotton as a pesticide. The arsenic remained in the soil and the rice plants are taking it up. That’s why Texas rice tends to be more contaminated. Interestingly, rice from India and Thailand tend to have lower levels of arsenic.

Your main point that the problem is not with rice itself, but with pollution, is an important one to make.

I am 70, When I was 60 I started changing how I eat and drink,kept learning about more and more stuff that is made bad and we are not told. To make a long story short, I also had the privilege to read Kevin Trudeau’s book about ””Natural Cures””’ They don’t want you to know’. Where is he now?Serving time”””””””and WHY, He tried to tell people what he learned. About the rice,probably true and I will research it but I will eat it, sparingly.

Brown rice passes through your system. That’s the whole idea of consuming this high-fiber food. How much arsenic is absorbed while the rice is passing through the digestive tract. More study is necessary before condemning brown rice. Much like when butter was damned over margarine, perhaps brown rice is actually safer than any white rice.

I am concerned that with a very large money that is involved will the truth ever be known. How long is congress going to turn a blind eye to our food and water standards. We need tighter controls for all.

I’m not one to jump on any bandwagon. I have to research multiple sources and will sometimes wait years before adopting health and/or nutrition advice. I’ll have to look into the safety-by-region aspect, but everything else in this article is supported by the more recent research.

Hate to tell you all but this guy Chris Kresser is a total joke. Brown rice is fine, White rice is bad. Do not listen to a word this guy says. Chris probably also thinks an alkaline body is bad when it is good. Guys like this should not be posting on the internet.

I tend to agree, though I now need to do more research on this. Heavy sigh. But when people start saying that things that humans have eaten for thousands of years as staples of the diet–like rice and bread–are categorically bad, I am very skeptical. GMO anything is bad. White bread and white rice have had all the nutrition stripped out of them, has been my understanding. Whole organic wheat and rice and products of same–there’s going to have to be a lot of convincing info before I buy that they are bad. And this article didn’t say–what is supposed to be the source of the arsenic in rice–is it some new pesticide or GMO thing or is it supposedly inherent to the grain? It’s all so exhausting, some new thing every other day that you have to go research and try to figure out. 🙁

The whole thing has become popular recently because of the internet. It is true that that inorganic arsenic is a poison. It also true that it is a trace mineral in its organic form.

“Like lead, mercury and other metals, arsenic is toxic when it comes from an inorganic source. However, from an organic source it is an essential micro-mineral needed by the body in minute quantities (The Nutrition Bible, Joan Anderson and Barbara Deskins, 1995). In a recent study where organic arsenic was given to 12 patients with leukemia, 11 went into remission. The treatment apparently stops cancer cells from reproducing and then they self-destruct (New England Journal of Medicine, November 1998).” http://www.supremefulvic.com/documents/html/organic-inorganic.html

“Rice (Oryza sativa) is a staple crop for half of the world’s population, but it can accumulate high levels of arsenic. When consumed over time, arsenic can lead to cancer and skin lesions. But the plant has its own mechanisms for fighting arsenic accumulation, according to a paper published today (October 20) in PNAS. Researchers based in Korea and Japan have shown that a rice transporter protein called OsABCC1 prevents arsenic from damaging plant tissues by sequestering the element in vacuoles. Because of this, potentially harmful arsenic remains in these cellular waste containers rather than building up in rice grains.”

I am not surprised to read this. If rice was so full of arsenic, how have the people of the far east managed to stay alive for millenia? To them, rice is almost like a holy food; they cannot imagine a diet without it.

Rice itself doesn’t contain arsenic. Its absorbed through the soil. Which means that vegetables and other grains are also absorbing arsenic. Potatoes also contains arsenic. It also depends on other factors such as place and type of soil. I also wonder about another factor. Talking about rice, It says here that its uncooked. Usually rice should be washed and then cooked. Some arsenic is most likely washed away and diluted during the cooking process.

I am a diabetic and have been for 15 yrs. My Dr. Who specializes in diabetes,said never eat anything white ,so I only eat brown rice,and my blood sugars and A1C levels are always normal sugars 75 to 140 A1C is.6.5 no white bread or white potatoes.

well this is just a huge bummer. I feed my kids brown rice pasta (organic ground turkey spaghetti) pretty often. I am hoping that by boiling the noodles, this helps? or should i cut this out of their diets?

When it comes to food the truth of the matter is that all we consume, one way of another, is not 100% safe. All we can do is to educate ourselves to minimize our risk and that of our families. Unfortunately there is no guarantees in life with anything and food it is no exception, but you can’t stop eating out of fear.

Just wonder about rice grown in California….hmmmm, sounds like marketing going on here. Could this be another scare tactic to further decimate third economies, many of whom grow and export rice. After all, they did it to coconuts and bananas from the Caribbean back in the 70’s when their science told us that coconut oil should, under no circumstances should be consumed. It is now found that coconut oil is among the healthiest on the planet. They also relegated breast milk from mothers to the side lines as hey successfully promoted formula feeds for baby around the same time.

Rices have been consumed by for thousands of years without any adverse effects evident and here comes our clever scientist from the west trying to undo nature.

It has made me nuts after seeing 2 Naturopaths that have said no rice, no nuts, ai should eat meat and more. If I follow what they say there is little to eat (not ready to eat red meat or chicken. Some fish is ok. So much misinformation hard to know what to believe.

Agree, it is enough to drive one insane. Gonna have to do a lot more research before I buy into this one. And I really don’t buy into the whole paleo thing. And NUTS? Hadn’t heard that one, why are they supposed to be bad? Everything I’ve read says that they are a good source of very healthy fats and part of a healthy diet, eaten in moderation. I’m leary of any system/ diet that eliminates entire categories of food–unless that category is GMO or pesticide poisoned food. But grains in general? Honestly, I think that’s BS.

I am Gluton intolerant and have been eating a dessert spoon of Rice Bran every morning for the past 5 years, I am very worried now as the Rice Bran has been withdrawn from the shelves and is no longer available, so have I damaged myself by eating something that is dangerous when I thought it was a health food. I have emailed the company to find out what is going on, as I think we as consumers have a right to know.

Chris – I would like to know why Consumer Reports is just NOW telling us this?? Rice has been around forever and they NEVER tested it till now?? Surely they have tested it before, or was it fine all these years and for some reason this year it has arsenic in it?? This is serious as I have an autistic 5 year old grandson that gluten affects and he has been eating rice products for a couple of years now.

I can’t help to be aware of: Chinese,Philipino,Laotians,Asians of many nations ,Spanish,Indian (India),Latin-Americans ALL have eaten rice at least once daily!-often twice per day,and a good serving at that! I just don’t know what to say when I consider this-could it be that other components of rice in interaction with the human system alter it’s danger or toxicity?-otherwise,this makes NO SENSE. …?

I have recently been diagnosed with pre-diabetes so I took a friends advise who successfully treated hers with whole grains, nuts, veggies, etc. instead of white carbs. I bought a lot of breads and crackers at the Health Food store – pretty expensive. After reading all these comments I looked at the ingredients in all of the different crackers and found that they all contained brown rice flour and brown rice syrup – I have been eating these several times a day with my between-meal snacks. Now I am getting a little worried. Any alternatives anyone could suggest? THANKS!

If you have diabetes or pre-diabetes you shouldn’t be eating wheat in any form, whole or refined. The glycemic index value of either is virtually identical with whole wheat slightly higher. Two slices of whole wheat bread is identical to six teaspoons of sugar. Search for Dr. William Davis’s book “Wheat Belly”.

the rice grown in china is regulated. The rice from china is the safest to eat. india is safer than some but china the best. the arsenic comes from the water use to grow it. Rice grows in water. White rice is much lower because the asrsenic concentrates in the bran.

Oh really? China has one if the highest soil,water and air pollution and vastly all over,farmlands have been polluted in many ways and rice over there is pretty highly contaminated by any standard. Not talking just arsenic here,but,lead,mercury and cadmium rice as fondly it is called in the market. Indian basmati rice and others actually have been tested and has the lowest amount of inorganic arsenic in it so far and it stands in the same category with Californian grown basmati rice. There are many articles from credible research and sources putting out the fact hands down about polluted toxic metals and poisons in Chiba grown rice online. Read this one…http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2817542/More-half-rice-products-exceed-new-EU-limits-ARSENIC.html. Get educated first and then spread awareness,otherwise you will be doing more harm than good…!!!

Arsenic in rice is drawn from the soil in which it is grown. Fields which have been used to cotton in the past are typically high in arsenic soil content – so southern US states (except maybe California) grow rice high in arsenic

do you really believe the ground water in china is clean enough to produce arsenic free rice considering the industrial revolution that has occurred there? Add to that factories that dump waste into the rivers due to a lack of enforcement. i would not trust any agricultural product from china to be free of harmful chemicals and heavy metals.

there is no such thing as any safe food from china. the soil, water and air is contaminated . there is no such thing as organic there either. 100% impossible. the country puts lead paint on children’s toys. they are now making rice out of edible , toxic plastic. the garlic is completely toxic. i feel very terrible for the people. their gov’t is corrupt . also because north america sends everything over there to be built to keep the pollution over there and as far away from here as possible. they are now buying air from calgary canada. it is devastating. also read the fine print. it is disgusting.

I would buy rice then from other countries. Because when I lived in Japan they ate tons of rice and they have low cancer patients. The rice from California is one I will look for in the stores from now on. I love rice and I would think a steamer would be a great idea for those that like white rice as I do.

gotta think, just goes to show, “yeah arsenic in rice is something to be aware of” but the “american diet” deserves way more scrutiny. maybe that can answer why cancer rates are way higher in america. my opinion its the way of life, combined with type of food, excess process and fast food ect… not to mention products with ingredients strait from a chem lab there are a lot more pressing matters. ill end here, im kind of a health nut didn’t mean to rant. (the key is moderation i guess) too much of any thing is bad

I hope people realize that we have more to be concerned about as Americans with our epidemic of obesity and diabetes. I’m adamantly convinced as a Chef and arm-chair nutritionist, that growth hormones, pesticides, insecticides, artificial additives, and toxic chemicals are far more ominous and nefarious trace amounts of arsenic in rice. The media propagates the negative; school shootings, race baiting, Dr.Oz quackery which one day is policy and the next day is violation. Eat healthy just vary your diet between tuna “worries” and rice hysteria !!!

Why dont you guys just leave those damn grains alone for the birds and actually eat? Problem slved,no soaking,ratios and all that. Eat salmon tuna spinachs nuts avocados honey red meat,organic grown chicken,veggies,fruits. Those grains only make you feel full an dbring nothing to your overall nutrition. AND if you want to eat healthy just folow this simple rule. If God(or mother nature-9 wanted us to eat white sugar there will be white sugar hanging on the trees right? well,same for rice and for everything. No matter how many studies tell me that white rice is better than brown I will stick to brown any day. I would only rince it. Just avoid those grains,humans where nomads the didnt stay anywhere and grow rice corn etc. They didnt need to stay anywhere caue there was plenty of food everywhere and no need to save for tomorrow,sell etcc etc So leave those grains alone and eat food. Thats meat fish nuts green fruit eggs and honey

Goodoints Carlos. I would skip the Tuna due to high Mercury. The first Naturopath ai saw said to only eat eggs from free range chickens or I would end up consuming Gluten. This may be true but to me it is a bit over the edge.

I think the arsenic-in-rice alarm raised by Consumer Reports exaggerates the danger, possilby causing readers to take actions that actually harm their health. If you quantify the harm, you’ll see that this is a minor issue compared to other dangers you face in your daily life. Take a look at my calculations at http://ataridogdaze.com/recipe/arsenic-rice.html

@G Chang, your essay is very well written and I would encourage anyone who is concerned about arsenic levels in food to read it. You have taken a very scientific and even-handed approach which I appreciate.

My only concern is with some of the examples you give, you do not seem to apply the same rigor. For example, the assumption that sodium will increase heart attack risk, or the guidance that cooked whole grains are a healthier replacement for rice than potatoes. I think if you gave these issues the same treatment you gave to arsenic in rice, your opinion might change. (The Perfect Health Diet, by Paul & Shou-Ching Jaminet, is a great place to start — I think you’d appreciate that they apply the same harm vs. benefit test that you use in your essay to almost every aspect of diet.)

Hi Mike, thank you for reading my essay and posting your comments. My main point was not to recommend one food over another, but to point out that many articles proclaim some type of danger in a particular food when the true effect is insignificant. I feel that Consumer Reports has really “missed the mark” by publishing their articles on arsenic in rice and 4-MeI in pancake syrup, causing unwarranted worry and alarm.

hi chris, i am breastfeeding my daughter and found i needed more carbohydrates and a strictly paleo diet left me starving all the time so i recently introduced the lundberg sweet brown rice. is it best to avoid rice altogether while nursing or just switch to white? if its unsafe any other suggestions for complex carbs? i was sweet potatoed out. i was still eating a variety of other things like parsnips turnips ruatabegas beets but still starving so introduced rice as well. or any other diet advice while nursing? thanks!

You need more healthy fats in your diet! Nuts, seeds, salads drenched in yummy homemade dressings made from good EVOO and other healthy unrefined oils, butter and cheese (in moderation), coconut oil, avocadoes. You don’t need to go hungry in order to eat healthy. And no, you don’t need grains or a large amount of carbs. What you need is more calories. Healthy fats are ideal for your purposes.

Hi Chris, I greatly respect the work you do but find it unnerving how off the numbers were in this article. On the consumer reports study you linked, most brands had at least 100 ppb arsenic and some way higher. The current EU limit is 200 ppb. And Lundberg’s website states the 2011 and 2012 were 95 and 73 respectively. How did you come up with what is written? Mayer

We are a boutique (small), independent rice grower on the island of Mauritius (actually, the only rice grower in the country) growing a naturally cross-pollinated rice variety. We cross bred varieties originally with the intent to find a variety with a low glycemic index and we succeeded in this regard. However, when the Consumer Reports study on Arsenic and Rice in the US came out, we decided to send samples of our rice to a lab in Seattle to test for Arsenic, especially Inorganic Arsenic.

For both total Arsenic and Inorganic Arsenic our rice yielded below the Limit of Detection (<9 ppb). Looking through the arguments regarding why some rice varieties in specific geographical settings have lower arsenic than others, I can only say for us that a confluence of factors came together purely by luck.

1. There was a British study that claimed that Bangladeshi rice varieties from the village of Sylhet had a stronger resistance to uptaking arsenic from the soil – some of the lines we had been cross-breeding for years came from this particular village.

2. It was mentioned that the flooded paddy fields contributed to rice absorbing more arsenic from the soil. We grow our rice exclusively on dry soil, depending on rainfall for irrigation. This was not our original preference but borne out of water shortages in Mauritius and the unsuitable terrain.

3. Some have claimed that use of arsenical pesticides in the past resulted in the ground water being contaminated. The land we are growing our rice on used to grow sugar cane, however it was a poor sugar cane estate and I doubt any chemicals were ever used in the past as the ground water is drinking water quality.

We’re working to get it online soon, as well as into more stores across the US. In the mean time, if you (or anyone else) would like a sample bag, please drop me a mail through our website (www.mightyrice.com). I would be interested in any feedback.

Herman, we tried your sample bags and they were amazing! I’m so impressed you were willing to send them to us in Canada. I can hardly wait until they are available in stores here (though I understand that may take some time since I live in Winnipeg)!

Elevated levels of arsenic in foods and infant formula that are sweetened with rice syrup have been found, as shown in new research from Dartmouth College. The data demonstrate the gaping holes in the regulation of our food supply, which is not a new story. But there is a new twist here: Rather than the problem being imports from other countries (see my recent blog on fungicide in orange juice from Brazil), in this case, it’s the domestic product that is more contaminated. Why should rice raised in the US be the problem? Well, cotton on to this one.

Major portions of the US cotton belt have been converted over to rice production, so much so that the US south produces 12% of all rice on the planet. The majority of rice consumed in the US is domestic. Cotton fields historically received high doses of arsenic-based pesticides and this arsenic is still sitting in the topsoil. When you flood fields creating rice paddies, the arsenic is mobilized and goes right into the crop. The good news is that it’s toxic to rice, causing a syndrome called “straighthead disease”. That should have been enough to kill the concept – why produce rice with high levels of arsenic, a well-known nerve poison and carcinogen?

The US Dept of Agriculture’s research into rice cultivars that are resistant to arsenic has been a huge commercial success in the southern heartland. They are still doing research to improve rice production in high arsenic soils. To be fair, the USDA is also doing research to try to find cultivars that don’t become so highly contaminated by arsenic. But this research is not protecting the American public from the bad idea of growing rice on old cotton fields. This is tinkering with the US food supply to maximize profit with minimal thought given to food safety. Its sister agency, the FDA, does not even have safety standards for arsenic in rice.

Fortunately, the Dartmouth research points out the dangers of growing arsenic-resistant rice. In this case, they tested products containing organic brown rice syrup, a processed sweetener derived from rice. There is obviously something wrong with the organic label if you can call something grown on high-arsenic soils organic. But aside from that, the compounding of mistakes is mind-numbing. Taking a crop high in arsenic and concentrating it down into a syrup and then putting that into baby formula – sounds almost like a terrorist plot on a TV drama. Unfortunately, it’s actually happening. And it’s even more outrageous when considering that simple sugars and empty calories are a risk for diabetes. This effect is now combined with arsenic, a chemical that can decrease pancreatic function and is linked to diabetes.

The Dartmouth research found two brands of infant formula that contain the rice-based sweetener. The inorganic arsenic concentration in these brands was double the federal drinking water limit and five times higher when you add in the methyl forms of arsenic that also have some toxicity. And the daily dose per body weight for an infant on this formula would be 10 times higher than what the US EPA’s reference dose for arsenic dictates is safe.

The take home messages at this point are:

Parents of infants: Avoid formulas that contain rice syrup. Apparently most don’t, but read the label. The two brands Dartmouth studied with high arsenic are Baby’s Only Organic Dairy Toddler Formula and Baby’s Only Organic Soy Toddler Formula, both made by Nature’s One.

Everyone else: 1) Rice syrup: Minimize consumption until we know more. A little is no big deal and it’s not in that many things. But if it’s in the things you like (for example, higher-end snack bars), you will want to moderate. Since high fructose corn syrup has its question marks, I’d head in the direction of honey or plain old sugar. If you stay away from refined highly sweetened foods to start with, you are way ahead of the game. 2) Rice: Imported rice is lower in arsenic; look for whole grain (brown) basmati or jasmine rice, which come from India and Thailand, respectively.

FDA: Do more testing, especially of baby rice cereal. As baby’s first solid food, it’s urgent that we get arsenic data on rice cereal from the US.

Fortunately, by properly boiling rice (the way it was traditionally cooked) you can remove much of the arsenic content. Cooking rice in a rice cooker actually concentrates more arsenic than what was in the rice before cooking, adding to the health concern. Healthy cultures have been eating white and brown rice for centuries — it’s more about what it’s eaten with and how it’s prepared!

Is there any proof (lab tests) that preparing the rice this way somehow removes the arsenic? What does a rice cooker do that causes it to retain more arsenic and how does the boiling method resolve that issue?

Hey Ed, yes there are several studies that indicate boiling rice in ample water reduces arsenic content (which I link to in my article on boiling rice (http://creationbasedhealth.com/how-to-boil-rice). The reason cooking rice in a rice cooker contributes to higher levels of arsenic is that there is arsenic in drinking water. So, when the evaporative/rice cooker method is used, the water either evaporates or is absorbed, leaving any arsenic that was in the drinking water behind, increasing the amount of arsenic consumed with the rice.

It is erroneous to say that your cooking approach reduces arsenic in the rice, since it does not remove any that is already in the rice. Rather, it avoids or mitigates the introduction of additional arsenic from cooking water that may contain it. My water is from a well which is tested and heavily filtered including stages that remove any arsenic.

Katie, you can go grain-free– it’s OKAY. It’s a myth that we NEED grains in our diet. We need carbs, yes, in proportion to how much physical activity we get. But you can get plenty of carbs from vegies (especially roots), fruits, legumes, etc. There is no nutrient in grains that is not found in greater abundance in other, healthier foods. You will not starve. And you will probably be healthier. Same for the woman wondering what to feed her baby. Like dairy products, grains are a food OPTION, not a necessity.

There seems to be some confusion in Chris’s text between “ppb” and “micrograms per serving”. For example, the Lundberg Basmati rice had 1.3 to 1.6 micrograms of inorganic arsenic per 1/4 cup serving. (Since ppb is essentially a fraction, it doesn’t change with serving size.) The link to the Consumer Reports pdf only has ppb numbers, but the article in their Nov 2012 paper magazine shows total arsenic in ppb and inorganic arsenic in micrograms. The New Jersey drinking water limit of 5 ppb equates to 5 micrograms of arsenic in one liter of water (1000 grams), but for cooked rice, the relationship between the two is less clear.

The Dec 2013 issue of CR mentions that in September the FDA tested 1300 samples of rice products and found similar arsenic levels in most cases. They found even higher levels than CR in some rice beverages.

I think the entire asian continent and asian people living in the West whose staple food is rice are going to die early. 😉 or maybe not? I mean some of the asians, especially the Japanese, have set records as oldest people. And fish, which is considered toxic and full of mercury, are also big in their diet.

I have begun to use California Rice Bran Oil from http://www.californiariceoil.com. For the vitamin E content in particular. Are you aware of any data on the arsenic levels in this specific product or the source of their bran?

Hello. I’ve been on a budget so I recently ate 11 lbs of Lundberg brown rice in less than 4 weeks.. That’s about 25 1/4 cup servings a week. Did I do a lot of damage to my brain and body? Thanks for the article!

Don’t stop eating rice – stop drinking water! If EPA says it’s safe to consume 5 ppb per day You could only drink 0,5 L water in 24 hours!!! How is it possible we focus on rice when the drinking water is so polluted that it is only safe to drink 0,5 liter per day? Here in Denmark the Ministry of Health says that 1 rice cake contains the same amount of inorganic arsenic as 0,5 liter water… what’s the biggest problem – the rice or the water? I would say the water, because I drink 3 liters per day and that could be roughly 30 ppb arsenic a day!

I would like to know if Japanese rice such as Nishiki Brown Rice or Jasmin Rice have high arsenic levels. I have been eating it with dinner almost every night. I was hoping that they don’t use as much insecticide over there.

Thank you for your reply, it does provide some comfort. Still, I worry about potential long term effects. It makes you feel a bit helpless, when you’ve been unknowingly feeding your child potentially harmful foods, but like you said kids are very resilient. The only symptom I can think of is that she did complain of muscle weakness for a time, her physician did a complete blood count with electrolyte panel, and all looked normal (she thought anemia possibly, etc). The weakness has since subsided, and we are no longer eating rice (very little and not too often), I wonder if there was a connection there. Thank you again for your reply, and for the helpful suggestions, it is very much appreciated! 🙂

I have been looking into this rice business for a while now, I hope some one might be able to offer some sound advice. I discovered I had a wheat allergy shortly after the birth of my first child almost 10 years ago. I ended up eating alot of organic brown rice products (rice pasta, rice bread, rice cereal, sometimes milk, rice cakes, etc), and naturally my child ended up eating alot of the same things. I am truly scared to learn that I have been feeding something potentially dangerous to my child and myself for years. I am so scared that I have done harm to my child (during her most sensitive developmental years), and I don’t know what to do about it. I’ve cut out all of our rice products, but we will occasionally eat white rice I’ve called my child’s physician, who was unfamiliar with the rice/arsenic connection, and she told me not to worry, that arsenic tends not to accumulate in the body, and to just cut back on the rice consumption. But should I be doing more? We’ve been eating lots of brown rice for years, what should we do to take care of ourselves and minimize the risk of harm? Are there any treatments or detox therapies that are safe? Is it necessary or recommended? I don’t really know who to turn to for help with this. What I find horrific is that this arsenic/rice connection has been known about for years, and all these products for kids with rice ad rice syrup are marketed, I just don’t understand it, it makes me so angry. I’ve tried very hard to feed my child healthy and organic foods, and it was so frustrating to learn that our main staple food (organic and from a health food/natural market store), is laced with a carcinogen. Any advice? I would really appreciate any help, thank you.

I am not a professional health care giver but I have spent 100’s if not 1000’s of hours reading Chris and other paleo authors like Paul Jaminet of PHD fame. I personally have a son who is almost two and I want to relieve you of your parent guilt/worry, I know when it comes to your kid you want nothing but the best and don’t want to hamper any development. I would not be to worried about the arsenic content of brown rice from past exposure and here is my thinking why 1.) kids are extrememly resilient, I was fed hot dogs once a week pretty much the first 18 years of my life, not to mention every kind of processed food you can imagine and I am of normal intelligence and above average whit 😉 plus I have no physical conditions or anything. Obviously every person is different but if your kid is not showing any signs of problems things are probably ok to this point. 2) if you feed your child a pretty healthy diet already than their detox systems should be in pretty good shape and most likely haven’t had huge amounts of trouble in dealing with the arsenic. By discontinuing the high arsenic foods for a while and then recontinuing them with moderation in the future you should be alright. Be sure you are getting rice from either the west coast or india, these are of the lowest levels tested. 3.) if your kid is only getting toxins for a couple place they are wayyyy ahead of most kids, I know with my son we try and be 80/20ish like Chris talks about. High quality organic nourishing foods 80% of the time and 20% of the time we make exceptions with limits of course

I have recently bought tapioca syrup from barry farms and it tastes so much better than rice syrup with non of the arsenic. My advice would just be to make sure you continue to have lots of high quality foods in your childs diet, I like to sneak things into smoothies and alike. Spinach in berry smoothies, dulse in soups. etc. Some good foods to premote detox are high quality whey, high Vitamin C foods and sulfur rich foods.

I am a tad suspicious to tests like this for the reason that there is no counterparts aka other nonrice products to related to. Like, what is the levels in; wheat maize oat potatoe soy peas ? MUCH better, equal/simillar, MUCH worse? As it is now, one might go; “Oh no! Everything with rice is extremely dangerous, I must switch all the rice to x!”

It is a known fact that different plants have an affinity for different minerals. Since rice is selectively taking up arsenic (mineral) from the soil, wouldn’t you think that over time the arsenic concentration in older rice paddies would decline, thus reducing the arsenic levels of the rice grown in them?

Is it possible that the growers somehow (inadvertently) replenishing the arsenic back into the soil? Would you like to see a study on this?

Chris, have there been studies that prove that brown rice + rice bran are actually less nutritious than white rice due to the phytates etc? because cattle are fed rice bran and absolutely thrive on it in a mixed ration. its a high quality feed rich in vitamins and minerals.

Hi Chris, I hope this get to you. I am a first time mother of a 6 month old who is breastfeed. She has just started solids, mainly veggies. I was told by her pediatrician to start feeding her rice cereal. I am very very hesitant and have yet to give her any due to all this news about the aresenic. I have been frantically researching trying to find the rice with the least amount, or an alternative but Im not sure what to do. I make my own baby food so I purchased the ludenburg brown rice from whole foods. But per your article brown rice the most arsenic in it. I don’t want to deprive her of nutrition, this whole this is really stressing me out. Can you give me any sugesstions on what rice to give or a healthy alternative like sweet potato??

Hi Des, I would guess that since you are only using approx 1 tsp of the tea, and since only a small amount of that is rice, the amount of arsenic you’d be getting in your cup of tea would be very small. In fact, I’d be more worried about the fluoride content of the tea itself (which luckily appears to be lower for loose-leaf teas than tea bags — that’s why I switched to loose-leaf tea).

I wouldn’t be surprised if the tea leaves contain some amount of arsenic too! But it’s the amount you’re exposed to that matters.

Personally, I find that brown rice digests more slowly than white, and therefore has less impact on my blood sugar. I eat Lundberg Organics Short Grain Brown or Brown Jasmine, perhaps once a month. Even when Hubs and I did the McCombs Candida Plan (www.mccombsplan.com) we ate it perhaps once a week. I don’t think I’ll worry too much about it, unless I were to become pregnant (I’d be of quite advanced maternal age if so).

What about the Rice Krispies (both cocoa and regular) and the arsenic issue? We used rice cakes for my Aspies due to they didn’t like rice for the BRAT diet after flus when they were all emptied and used yogurt with it in the stomach as an early easy to digest food; albeit that was yoplait. I know about the sugar issues, but now I’m concerned we released more of the poison on emptied intestines/stomachs. They had a lot of flu as one of their illnesses one developing year in particular. Oh NO!!!!! I never served rice most the time over the years though, but now I wonder about arsenic in other products.

Hi Chris, I am currently 26 weeks pregnant with my second child, and have been consuming a moderate amount of white rice in conjunction with a healthy diet. I heard about the arsenic in rice on the Dr Oz show and have since been rinsing my rice in warm water prior to cooking to remove arsenic residue. Would you suggest that I avoid rice altogether for the remainder of my pregnancy? I am not too concerned because my overall diet is relatively healthy. I consume lots of vegetables, fruits, raw milk, organic eggs, and healthy fats like coconut oil etc. I think I would be more concerned if I was eating too much in the form of takeaway foods, sugar or trans fats. I was surprised to learn that brown rice is a less healthy option, when compared to white rice, due to phytates, and now arsenic! I used to think brown was the healthier option… Luckily I have been eating mostly the white stuff! Thank you for you information.

Thanks Chris for another great article. I eat perhaps two servings a month of Tinkyada Brown Rice Penne. I queried Tinkyada and below is their reply. I will rethink even two servings per month as if I am correct, their figure of 0.20-0.23 ppm equals 200 – 230 ppb, which is well over the 5 ppb considered safe/day for adults by the EPA

“We are aware of the report indicated in your e-mail. Over the years, there have been similar reports and we are confident that the authorities have been reviewing them too. Rice has been a major staple for many people, and we believe that these consumers should seek further and complete information as to the extent that rice consumption may affect their health.

All the rice we use comes from Arkansas, U.S.A. From our sample analyses, the arsenic level of our brown rice pastas appears to be in the range of 0.20 – 0.23 ppm (parts per million). Our understanding is that all rice contains arsenic and that many food contain arsenic too. Even though it does not appear that there is an adequate scientific basis for recommending drastic changes in the consumption of rice and rice products, it may be advisable to focus on a varied diet before a clear and thorough result from investigations has come out. Like what the report says, we should limit our exposure, and we would note that the report contains their recommended limits on rice and rice-product consumption for both children and adults.

We shall keep a close watch of the situation. At this moment, we feel that we should be on the alert and not alarmed, and that a moderate approach toward food consumption will be good guidance.”

The proper metric for food is milligrams per kilogram or micrograms per gram. You want whatever rice you consume to have less than 5 mcg of inorganic arsenic per 60 gram serving (which is roughly equal to 1/4 cup).

Thanks so much for writing about this topic. The Consumer Reports study finally generated enough people to talk about the problem with arsenic in rice. It is the last study in a long line of studies dating back at least to 2007. Just in Feb 2012, the Dartmouth study brought it to light. I started a petition over on change.org when I wrote about the Dartmouth study in February for my blog, Green Talk. I was so upset over the fact that 1) everyone in the industry including the FDA and EU knows about this problem. Don’t you think five years is enough time to do something about it? and 2) it is solvable agriculturally: don’t flood the fields. Experts say that the yields are better and lower arsenic levels. Lotus Food is living proof. Alternatively, develop a less sensitive rice grain. A Purdue professor is working on this right now. Here is the link to the petition. I am worried about all the people who don’t know about the problem or who dismiss the problem. They don’t know the long term effects. Should we wait until that shoe drops? http://chn.ge/xJGMe5. Please sign and share.

We don’t eat much rice, but I do make a huge batch of fermented buckwheat & rice-flour pancakes weekly. The kids eat them for breakfast (along with bacon) almost every day. Luckily it’s white rice flour — I used to use more buckwheat, but rice flour is a lot cheaper and I find about a 40:60 mixture of buckwheat to rice flour tastes best.

Lately I’ve been adding a more “real” starches into the pancakes — various combinations of mashed banana, leftover sweet potato, or pumpkin. (These really enhance the flavour!) So I’ll take this arsenic warning not as a reason to completely avoid the white rice, but just to favour the buckwheat and real foods more.

I’m glad you pointed out that many (most?) other foods also contain arsenic. If it’s in the soil, plants will grow, some will uptake it more than others, and we or our food animals eat those, and it comes to us. If people can smoke into their 70s and 80s (my friend’s dad smoked until 83, then shot himself to avoid a slow painful smokers death), I can eat my bloody rice, especially the brown stuff, and not worry about it.

I hope they soon examine the heavy metals in cows and pigs, not just fish, soon.

I hope you’re not going to shoot yourself when you have neurological disease such as Parkinson’s from toxic accumulation all your life…. your hands won’t be steady enough from the crippling and debilitating disease.

There is a difference to “man made / inorganic” arsenic and “naturally occurring / organic” arsenic – one the body DOES need in minute trace quantities, the other simply doesn’t do anything but accumulate and interfere with the human body’s normal functions and eventually kills them slowly, painfully. This for some reason most people ignore. Naturally vs man made is the answer when people say “oh well, it’s in everything anyway” – nature did not mean for you to eat inorganic minerals your body cannot use. This is the key. Man made minerals are toxic,,,, natural minerals are in the right quantities naturally without human $$ intervention, so you won’t overdose or be poisoned by the trace quantities of ORGANIC arsenic in naturally grown food.

Accept govts poisoning your foods at your own peril. Your death means nothing to the “big corporate wheel” who rely on ignorance, brainwashing and laziness of the little people to continue to poison themselves and pay money to do it, even if it kills them and they know it….. tsk tsk. You have choices, please don’t give them up.

And yes, you’re on teh right track, let’s make those in power examine all the other ways they force us to ingest unnatural chemicals… let’s also not forget the mad cow disease epidemic due to “cannibal cows” to try and save money…… this world has gone mad and corrupt for the sake of money.

The package of Earthly Choice 100% whole grain black rice I bought has instructions on its package: Rinse rice under cold water before cooking.

When I did so, the effluent was bluish-black drainage, which looked identical to the drainage from black beans. All beans must be drained before cooking in order to remove harmful lectin compounds. So what is the point in choosing black beans/rice for their antioxidant content, if pre-rinsing them leaches those (dark colored) antioxidants away along with the arsenic and leptins?

From Wikipedia article ‘Lectin’: Foods with high concentrations of lectins, such as beans, cereal grains, seeds, nuts, and potatoes, may be harmful if consumed in excess in uncooked or improperly cooked form. Adverse effects may include nutritional deficiencies, and immune (allergic) reactions. Possibly, most effects of lectins are due to gastrointestinal distress through interaction of the lectins with the gut epithelial cells. A recent in vitro study has suggested that the mechanism of lectin damage may occur by interfering with the repair of already-damaged epithelial cells.

At this point I am far more worried about the massive amounts of cesium in half of the shipments of rice coming from Japan and China than I am arsenic. Revamp all global export laws with uniform legal standards and definitions for organic products. Millions of people have been fueling the healthcare industry for decades because of toxic foods. Billions in tax money spent for convenience foods and the resulting medical fees could be going into creating jobs and rebuilding our cities.

I recently bought jasmine cargo rice. It is delicious. My entire family liked it. I was annoyed by the amount of rinsing I had to do. I guess this article explains it. The product is from Thailand Rose brand.

Chris, do you know of a good way to detox or “chelate” arsenic from the body? Because it builds up, right? So we should all be taking measures to somehow get rid of it, right? Do you have any suggestions, like zeolite or clay or other foods that might help the body expel accumulated arsenic?

I know last year aquasana came out with a specific water filter to deal with arsenic in the water supply, so that might be something to look into.

Also, do you know anything about rice imported from Asia? In the bay area (as you know) there are a lot of rices from japan and China. I’ve been to China and they have terraced mountainsides in the country dedicated to rice production. Though China is very polluted, from what I’ve seen the rice may be least affected. Do you know anything about pesticides used there that may be present in their rice?

Organic rice has the same issues. If you follow the link to the Consumer Reports article, you can see a chart with test results for several organic and non-organic varieties. I haven’t looked very far into water filtration of arsenic; thanks for the tip on the Aquasana filter.

The studies I’ve read, and the Consumer Reports article, suggest that Asian and Indian varieties are lower in arsenic than rice grown in the U.S. south. That said, I’d probably stick with varieties that have been independently tested, like Lotus or Lundberg, to be sure.

Leah, yes, Zeolite, clay, charcoal, herbs, and avoidance. But at least you’re thinking the right way. I think its important to counteract any poisons we aren’t even aware we’re ingesting or breathing in or absorbing on a day to day basis, so I would add these to my daily routine if I concerned with detoxification. I personally do use these and do not rely on it to “magically evaporate” or whatever others who choose to dismiss it may think. It does accumulate and there are many ways to try and rid the body of it (and other poisons) but it’s always best to just stop exposing yourself to it. Do not rely on ‘safe levels’ theories spouted by govt’s who are trying to stop panic. If it accumulates, it will kill you. End of story. Avoid it altogether. Don’t even put your body in the position to have to deal with such an insidious toxin. Like you wouldn’t leave your house unlocked when you go to work everyday and try to stop the damage after you’ve been robbed, day after day, doing the same thing every day… you’d learn once (or be proactive and avoid from the first) and lock your house, instead of focusing on damage control. Once you get these diseases, like neurological diseases, they do not “go away”, they’re there to stay and make your life painful and helllish until you die. You can’t reverse it. It’s too late by the time you find out you’ve got it. Prevention is the best defence, as well as daily detoxification strategies. But like smoking, why do it at all? There are so many foods you can use instead of whatever it is that is poisoned. This also makes a stand to those in power, that covering the earth in man made chemicals is unacceptable to you and you won’t sustain the industry that continues to prop itself up with poison. That you’ll give it a wide berth and do something else rather than give them your money for rotten food and poison yourself to death. Now that’s empowering.

I eat 2 cups of Lunberg organic long grain white rice almost every day. It’s not on the list, so I don’t know the levels. Their California Basmati is over $1 more, but I might still have to go with it. Archer Farms Org. Basmati seems almost equally low. Though with more of the inorganic form, as well as extra lead and cadmium(thanks, Target 🙂 ). Haven’t done white sweet potatoes in a while – will give them a go as well to see if they cause trouble.

what about rice from the far east? do you have any data on that? cause the rice where i come from (israel) is usually from thailand, china and india. i guess it’s not heaven there either…. but am not sure about arsenic specifically

As Paracelsus famously once said, “the dose makes the poison”. There are many carciogens in all types of food and even in our own bodily fluids (eg. breast milk). We can’t avoid everything just because it containts micro-quantities of something carcinogenic! The amount is crucial.

Are the amounts in rice above the toxic level for humans as determined by peer-reviewed evidence-based biochemical research?

I really think that the best way to avoid such problems as much as one can is just to eat a wide variety of fresh foods (avoiding the obvious things which have other issues of endocrine disruption, bone reabsoption, inflammatory triggers etc…), and not too much of any one thing. Our knowledge is so fragmentary. Even if we knew all there is that has been established about which foods contain carcinogens and avoided them all, we would no doubt still be consuming carcinogens in other foods which had yet to be identified at problematic. I will continue to eat the odd bit of rice here and there and continue to avoid making it a habitual food.

Here is an article that I came across that has some interesting information on the subject of stabilized rice bran in particular that I would be interested to know what you think Chris after reading this.

Americans are paranoid about everything. Think of the literally billions of people on this planet that eat rice every day in amounts that are much greater than anything an American would consume and are fine. This includes their children. End of story as far as I’m concerned.

Tell me what billions of people eat more brown rice and processed brown rice products than Americans. The vast majority of rice consumption in the world is white/polished rice, and as I pointed out in the article, white rice is lower in inorganic arsenic than brown rice – especially if it comes from India or Asia (where most rice is being consumed). So I’m afraid this isn’t the end of the story at all.

I didn’t say anything about brown rice. You misread my comment. I was speaking about white rice which you mention above as having arsenic. I maintain my assertion that Americans are overly paranoid about what they eat. My wife, who is Chinese, laughed at the idea theist WHITE rice could be bad for you because of arsenic.

Furthermore, many Asians do in fact feed their young children rice or gruel made from rice.

Here’s the quote from above which I was referring to:

Recently, Consumer Reports Magazine released their analysis of arsenic levels in rice products, and the results were concerning. Popular rice products including white rice, brown rice, organic rice baby cereal, and rice breakfast cereals, were all found to contain arsenic, a potent carcinogen that can also be harmful to a child’s developing brain.

Edward Brown, Perhaps you have not received the news that we currently have an epidemic of disease going on throughout our civilization. Children’s autism and other diseases are now at highest ever levels in the history of society.

The majority of civilization is asleep, like yourself, because you happily partake in the Roman bread and circuses, while our children are getting more and more disease.

If you choose to continue chowing down on the arsenic, go ahead, but at a minimum please do not do that to your children.

Before leaving any more messages broadly displaying your ignorance, I recommend you get a little more education on these subjects.

Also, get a life. There’s no need to try and make this conversation and disagreement over food safety personal. It can be hard to accept that people have different views than ours, and also that other cultures do things better than we do.

Here’s my simple advice:

If you like rice, eat white rice in moderate amounts. If you don’t like white rice, or can’t tolerate it for some reason, eat brown rice, unless you’re highly concerned about arsenic, in which case EAT SOMETHING ELSE.

Life isn’t fair.

Also, don’t give your child apples to eat, because, well, gee, the seeds have arsenic in them (and so does the juice). Of course I’m being sarcastic.

Basically, arsenic is in lots of things, including your drinking water. My point isn’t to scare you into not drinking water, drinking juice etc. My point is, life is full of hazards, and for crying out loud, relax.

David, While I probably do worry more than I should about the food I eat, I am very aware that no one else is going to do it for me. And I do indeed think its important to try to protect the innocent little children who rely on us to protect them. Still I think its important to realize that the high autism rate is much more likely to be from the excessive number of mercury-laced worse than useless vaccinations pushed onto our little ones than the food. Still when I see the children sick from cancer on the St. Jude’s Hospital ads on tv, it hurts me to know that at least some of it could have been prevented had their parents and they been given only clean, chemical free (non-GMO) food and water.

How do you know his liver cancer was caused by drinking beer? Was he an alcoholic that abused his liver or a moderate, occaisional beer drinker? No one would recommend abusing alcohol, including Ed Brown I’m sure. If he did abuse it then it may have contributed. But the idea that moderate beer caused it is suspect. There are cultures for which beer is a staple and they don’t have huge liver cancer problems. Ed is right. Americans but particularly Paleos are orthorexic and probably do far more damage long term by the stress, worry and deprivation they impose on themselves. I say this as someone who did Paleos for 10 plus years. It is a relief to be done with it. I’ve gained little if any weight and feel much better.

Great article, Chris. I live in Japan, so this is a big issue for us over here. Brown rice isn’t very popular here due to the preference for white rice’s taste and texture, but brown rice is known as a health food here, as well. A lot of ex-pats still prefer brown rice over white, so I’ll be sure to spread this article around among my peers. Thanks!

“I don’t think it’s prudent to voluntarily expose yourself to a toxin and count on detox strategies to prevent harm.”

I’m confused because in another article Chris says that we should voluntarily eat 3 servings of fish per week and count on selenium to prevent harm from mercury. I think if the detox strategy actually works then it’s totally prudent, right? Or am I misunderstanding??

In theory you are of course right. However, it is also counterproductive to eat too limited a diet. There is no way to avoid everything that might have a negative effect. when improperly prepared. The Weston Price bunch seem to know about these things.

I have been health conscious for ages but am becoming alarmed at the proliferation of “bad” foods. I say, eat a reasonable diet, be grateful for it (the most important thing) and keep your liver healthy. Make sure you have sulfur in your diet.

Rice is served in our house 1-3 times per month. White rice is the rice of choice. Family doesn’t really miss it. We eat Paleo, but still add in some “safe starches” occasionally. Thanks for all the great info.

Rice is a huge staple for me, sometimes consuming it at all three meals. Because of multiple food allergies my diet consists of mostly rice, carrots, peas, beef, dark chocolate, cocnut oil, some fruit and sometimes fish. But in the last month I’ve started to develop chronic hives, breaking out at least once most days. Now I’m worried I may be overdoing the rice. Do you think arsenic could cause hives?

If you can find a functional medicine practitioner who treats methylation, they can confirm if you’re an undermethylator and help you to address it. The most straightforward marker of methylation status (though it’s imperfect) is whole blood histamine.

Thanks for the link, I’ll check it out. That’s not something that I had considered. I know that one of the underlying issues for me is likely SIBO or a gut infection since I’m fairly thin and have fat malabsorption. I hope I can find a functional med. practitioner to work with. After countless appointments and testing with traditional doctors & $1500 out-of-pocket, all they were able to tell me was that I have IBS which is pretty much a useless diagnoses.

Hey Evan, If I were you I would do a quick experiment and eliminate the dark chocolate and the rice for 4 days and clear it out of your system. Then reintroduce one of these at a time and see when and if the hives persists. Would be curious to see if it makes a difference for you. I have found that the dark chocolate to excess for me does it. Good luck

Thanks John for the recommendation, I’ll try it. Hopefully I can find a good substitute for the rice… it’s such a convenient carb source (which I need for my work), but very may well be causing issues. Also will try eliminating chocolate.

Thank you for a very timely and balanced article, Chris. I’m concerned about certain supplements that use rice bran oil, for example Magnesium Citrate Softgels and gamma E complex from NOW Foods. I always thought this was a better alternative to ubiquitous soybean oil. I contacted Consumerlab (a subscriber) about it as Gamma E Complex by NOW foods has passed their testing. Haven’t gotten a reply so far, but they may be testing for lead only.

Makes me wonder if soaking for several hours or overnight, rinsing well, then soaking for another 3-4 days and rinsing before cooking has a positive affect against the arsenic. I use only CA grown sushi rice or organic white basmati from India (Trader Joes). It ferments nicely and tastes delicious. I happen to like rice sort of gooey so using lots of water is no problem.

Thank you! The white rice vs. brown rice comparison is news to me. I feel bad that I’ve been recommending brown rice to people. White rice can’t be that nutritious, so I would recommend skipping it for something more nutritious. I’m off grains now for health reasons. Anyone with a heavy metal toxicity might consider giving up rice altogether.

Where I live in Iran, Indian rice was announced to be unsafe due to high arsenic levels by the health ministry a few years ago (They said the arsenic stemmed from high levels in the cultivation soil) and it’s much cheaper than the Persians brands here.The import of some specific brands was even banned a few years ago.

What a well written and informative article, from you and consumer Reports… something good from America. I was particularly interested about the source of the contaminant outlined in CR. We eat little to no rice, I can’t do it, really, after surgery and radiotherapy for oral cancer, and we try to get most of what we eat from our property. Thanks to Dr LaLalond decriminalsing potatoes, I now feel no guilt getting my carb calories from our own varieties fo that marvelous tuber, the biggest source of vitamin C in NZ. Fat chance growing ric or sweet potatoes on the SI! (We do ruminants better than anyone)

Thanks for the heads up and, as always, looking forward to the next post.

Interesting stuff and a little concerning. I live iin part of Devon, England, where much of the arsenic came from that used to control the boll weevil in the USA cotton. When tin ran out they went for the arsenic in the same mines. This is back in the 18th-19th century but we thought it ironic to have the arsenic shipped back in the cotton and now in rice. Many gardens around this part of Devon are contaminated with arsenic and the growing of root vegetables is not advised. Don’t know if the USA used CCA as a pressurised wood treatment for fence posts etc. CCA (Copper, Chrome, Arsenic) was banned in 2005. A wound from a splinter from that wood used to take months to heal.

The trouble I undestand with arsenic is that it’s an accumulative poison. However small the amount you consume, it stays in the body and slowly builds up. Please someone tell me that this isn’t true.

It was the slow build up of arsenic from the green dye in wallpaper that supposedly killed Napoleon while in exile and William Morris the designer had shares in an arsenic mine near here. Some wallpaper in stately homes has to be covered to prevent wandering hands from absorbing the arsenic.

Esteri – Puzzled to hear rice bran described as a super-food. I thought all bran was indigestible and linked to irritable bowel syndrome. I guess rice bran is different to that of other grains.

This is true of many toxins in the environment, and the reality is that we’re exposed to them in many different ways. The good news is that we have some ability to handle a low exposure, which is why the safe limits for many are not “zero”.

But doesn’t multiple exposure, however low, if accumulative, become one large exposure? Those scraping the white arsenic from the sides of horizontal flues it condensed on wore only damp cloths over their heads and mouths yet were reputed to be some of the healthiest around. There is no record of how their average lifespan may have been changed for better or worse.

I am 22 weeks pregnant and don’t seem to gain a lot of weight with the Paleo diet, so I added more organic white basmati rice and sweet potatoes. Thank you so much for your article, I will stop the rice consumptions.. Just trying to protect the little one, which is not easy in our world..

Greg: most varieties of white rice on the Consumer Reports list were within the safe limits for a 1/4 cup serving of uncooked rice per day. No reason to eliminate it completely; just be smart about where you get it.

Chris, You’ve mentioned the advantages of bacon, but I’m curious what your opinion of it’s advanced glycation end product content is and whether this should be a reason to avoid it. Cordain’s latest book lists bacon as having the highest age product level by far.

Hi I use to eat minimal amounts of grains but always followed the weston price methods of soaking. Do youthink these methods work to make the grains more digestible and breakdown the phytic acid? I currently am on day five of no grains of starches and am blown away how light and amazing i feel!

Some dishes we make at home can’t be made well without rice (stuffed peppers, pilaf), and also we use rice flower when “breading” is needed. So we won’t drop it completely. We don’t eat it every day through.

Preference for brown rice over white rice seems to be an artifact from conventional understanding of cereal grain consumption: that there are more nutrients in whole form versus refined. Ironically, the anti-nutrients in bran are more impactful than its beneficial nutrients. I understand everyone’s preference for texture is unique, but given it’s relative scarcity in prepared foods, brown rice seems like something that’s convenient to forego.

According to the Consumer Reports analysis, that brand has between 2.7-3.0 ppb per 1/4 cup of uncooked white rice. If you limit daily consumption to that level, and you’re not getting a lot of arsenic from other sources, that should be fine.

I eat white rice a lot, and eat brown rice on occasion. I also eat other starches/grains, but LOVE well made, high quality rice (like Lundberg or other organic brands.) When I eat brown rice, I soak it overnight prior to cooking. This is yet another example of “know your food”, where it comes from, how it was grown, etc. I wonder how long it will take for those fields to have the excess arsenic leeched from it into our food, before those fields are back to pre-pesticide levels? Probably a very long time.

Do you have any idea whether the arsenic “survives” when the rice is broken down and the protein is extracted? I use a product (by Metagenics) that contains rice protein and wonder whether the same precautions apply.

What other produce is grown in wet type environments that could also have arsenic problems? A quick google showed peas, beans, watercress.

I too have been using the germinated brown rice but see the arsenic correlation with ungerminated conventional brown rice on the report. I would expect that cooking germinated brown rice using the recommended excess water, and then draining all that off, would also result in little nutritive value for the germinated brown rice, so what’s the point of ingesting it?!!

I was pleased to see the Lundberg’s taking a proactive stance and aiding the investigations “because it’s the right thing to do”.

The tests reported at the Lundberg web site show comparable arsenic levels to other US-grown rice, they could not repeat the Consumer Reports results. So the low levels found by CR are not typical, and we’ve stopped eating Lundberg.

The best rice we’ve found is from Lotus Foods, http://www.lotusfoods.com/, which is all imported from areas with very low arsenic. Also, the rice they buy is grown with low water levels, which also helps reduce arsenic uptake. Their test show extremely low arsenic levels, on the order of 0.15mg/kg for brown rice.

Assuming the inorganic arsenic content is about half of the total for Lotus Foods, seems to me it’s roughly the same as the Whole Foods White Basmati.

According to this link on Lundberg’s site, the average content of inorganic arsenic in their products (including both brown and white) is 95 ppb. The Consumer Reports article found an average of 64-76 ppb for Lundberg white rice, which is about what you’d expect if the average (including both brown and white) was 95. This corresponds to an inorganic arsenic content of .0013 to .0016, which would be even lower than the Whole Foods White Basmati and presumably the Lotus Foods rice.

In your article you say the EPA arsenic safe limit is 5 ppb. Most of the rices you have linked to in the consumer report (including the Lundberg variety) are 50-150 ppb. How can they ever be safe, or am I missing something?

The metric is that a liter of water with 5 ppb of arsenic exposes you to 5 mcg of inorganic arsenic. That’s the number you want to be concerned with, in the right-hand column. Any rice that exceeds the 5 mcg number would exceed the equivalent of drinking one liter of water with 5 ppb arsenic.

My mother-in-law just got diagnosed with increased levels of arsenic in her blood. She is Cuban and a big rice-eater. I actually didn’t quite believe her until I started reading the reports. She also has weak kidney function which (I’m sure) contributes to build-up of toxins in general. If you HAVE been exposed to arsenic, what can you do? Nina

Any insight as to the differentiation between organic and inorganic forms of arsenic in rice (naturally occurring vs. industrial byproduct). From what I have read on chelation of organic vs. inorganic minerals, this is an important differentiation to note. Also, what about organic arsenic at very low doses being a necessary trace mineral? The consumer report didn’t seem to mention either of these points, but since plain rice had the lowest levels and processed rice products had the higher levels, I have a hunch that there is an inherent amount of organic arsenic in rice but processing adds in additional and undesirable inorganic forms.

Now, we generally only have white rice with our sushi and I don’t think a bit of arsenic will keep me from eating sushi! I have never liked the taste of brown rice enough to make it. I think I had a bag in the pantry for a few years before I just accepted that, when given the choice, I would always choose white so I finally threw it out. Now I don’t even think we have rice in the pantry at all.

Hi Chris, I have been taking a tablespoon of stabilized rice bran daily since it is a super food. I read recently that the benefits of staiblized rice bran outweighed the negative concerns. What are your thoughts on the pros and cons of stabilized rice bran. Is a tablespoon of this a day worse than eating a bowl of brown rice? Really appreciate your writing on many topics!!!!

I already commented in this article, but this is hugely important to me because I have used rice bran as a super food vitamin source, taking it for B1, B3, B6. I do not want to take supplements, whole foods only. Is there ANY other way I can obtain at least 100% of those B vitamins daily from whole foods without eating a giant steak every day? I would appreciate a reply so much.

we just started feeding lundberg white rice to our three year old – in rotation – because he’s sensitive to nightshades and sweet potatoes….; we’ve been following the Perfect Health recommendations for safe starches. Aside from the arsenic, do you not recommend white rice for young children because of potential gut issues? lack of nutritional value?

Mostly because there are other more nutrient-dense starch choices, and my concern is that some kids have a tendency to get pretty addicted to stuff like white rice. But I don’t think it’s a problem if the overall diet is very nutrient-dense and white rice is limited to a few servings a week.

We eat ALOT of white rice at least 2-3 times a week. I buy the organic basmati rice from Trader Joes, I’ve heard the basmati rice is safer is that true? While I don’t “soak” it I do always rinse it several times before cooking and I doubt the water to rice ratio (1cup rice 2cup water) bring it to a boil and then simmer. I have three young children who eat it and I’m nursing one more…..do I need to make a change?

I come from a background where rice is a staple in the dishes we make. That being said I probably only eat it 2-3 times a month and prepare it by soaking over night in salted water and then rinsing thoroughly before cooking, which is how we traditionally prepare it.

Bit worried about your reference to brown rice syrup as I use this sometimes in baking or as a substitute to honey. When I quit sugar over 6 months ago I started using it since it is fructose free and honey is high in fructose. So now I’m wondering if using it has been a problem!

Hi Chris, as I mentioned in my post above I quit sugar a while ago based on an 8 week program which focused mainly on giving up fructose. Why? Because of the evidence that has been brought to light out there such as the talk Dr Lustig gives on the dangers of fructose, plus the book ‘Sweet Poison’ by Australian author David Gillespie and a few other studies I’ve seen.

I realise that not all fructose is created equally (i.e. in fruit for e.g.) but these studies show that too much can be harmful.

Not sure what your thoughts are on this matter. I’ve stopped using honey a long time ago but this has made me think.

I don’t agree that there’s any evidence suggesting that naturally occurring fructose in moderate amounts is harmful. Excess fructose from HFCS and fructose-sweetened beverages is harmful, especially in the context of metabolic problems. But that is not a reason to avoid small amounts of honey as a sweetener.

Tapioca syrup tastes great and is technically a “safe starch” so you can count it towards your glucose needs. Obviously you wouldn’t want to use it like crazy as it doesn’t have much for nutrients but I often use it for 100 calories or “safe starch” in my day.

I was so happy to find your articles on health. Then, I realized that you and Dr. Mercola, another favorite, do not agree on fructose and MANY other things, so now I am disappointed. Do not tell me just to do what agrees with me. That is too slow, complicated, confusing in a busy life. A life without everything that grows naturally; fruits, whole grains, nuts….seems unnatural. And soaking so many things, esp. nuts. That frustrates me. I can accept a lot about the food industry, big pharma, but I feel my main concern is to eat less. Probably your book would help.But computer searching, three newspapers, working out, the office, house chores are my daily basics. Balancing insulin shots and diet for over fifty yrs. is a job. Did I have a leaky gut at age 8 when Type I diabetes struck? I don’t think I could undo all my life. I do eat 97% organic, but that obviously isn’t enough. I want to get back to my uninformed happy as opposed to informed worried. I think you can empathize. ES

Emily, I agree with you 100 %(dare I say 1000%). “He says eat this, she saids do not touch and someone else says maybe” As in most of life-do everything in moderation. It is very difficult for me to believe white rice has much if any nutritional value. It is my understanding that most grains, etc. also have an enzyme, which negates much of the anti-nutrients when grains are soaked and even more when grain is sprouted! It is really hard to know who to believe!!

To discover the dangers of fructose, see Dr Lustig’s research and talks. There is an excellent YouTube talk by him, “Sugar – The Bitter Truth”. Fructose is fine when consumed as part of fruit, but in moderation, since the fibre in the fruit helps the body cope with it. But squeezed fruit juice isn’t good, it’s just a concentrated source of fructose, which is rapidly coming to be regarded as a toxin, related to all sorts of conditions, including cancer and heart conditions. As I understand it, naturally occurring fructose, consumed in it’s natural state is OK. So raw honey should be fine also. But everything in moderation.

I still eat white rice and noodles made from it. It doesn’t bother my gut like other grains. I always combine it with a lot of fat.. such as beef marrow/lamb soup with some rice noodles added in.. or rice as a small side with fatty meat/veggies. I find that I need SOME starch.. but mostly get it from sweet potatoes or the occasional fruit/ freshly squeezed grapefruit.

Michelle: I don’t think it’s a safe assumption to assume that soaking removes the arsenic. It might, but then again it might not. I haven’t seen any data on that either way. Rinsing the rice thoroughly and cooking it in a large volume of water (i.e. a 6-to-1 ratio) does reduce the arsenic content by about 35%.

I’m on a paleo-type diet, so grains of any sort aren’t an appreciable part of my diet. Even so, I have family members that do still consume a good amount of grains, including rice. My question is– where is this arsenic coming from? Is it due to fertilizers or pesticides? Is it a natural consequence of certain regions’ soils? Is it a manufacturing side effect? That would be useful to know.

Mostly pesticides used for other crops. The reason the levels of arsenic from rice grown in southern U.S. states are higher than rice grown in CA or Asia is that those states used a lot of arsenic-containing pesticides to control boll weevils, and the arsenic is still in the soils.

I grew up in the cotton-growing South, and know something of arsenic-based pesticides. From the 1930s to 1960s, arsenic was used to control boll weevils. Then, in the early 1960s, arsenic-based defoliants became very popular and likely accounts for the historic residual accumulations. Arsenic was banned as a defoliant by EPA in the early 1990s. Presently, arsenic (MSMA & DSMA) is used commonly on cotton, golf courses, right-of-ways, lawns, sod farms, etc. to control weeds.

hi Chris- ive heard Bob’s Red Mill claim their stabilized brown rice bran contains no arsenic- because it is grown in California- is this true – or will it still contain lesser but still significant levels. i hope you have an authoritative reply to this to help me choose whether to buy again that product.

The arsenic is coming from chicken poop from large factory chicken farms, according to Natural News. These wastes are released into the water and floods cause the water to be deposited on the rice beds. Almost all rice the world over is contaminated, except Indonesia, including most of California. Even organic rice is exposed.

Selenium displaces arsenic, so I take 200 to 400 mcg of selenium a day, regardless of rice intake. Most people are deficient in Se anyway, and the soils are depleted in the US except in the plains areas. Another way of getting dietary selenium is to eat high Se lentils. Here is the study from the NIH and Calgary U. on the subject.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23800687 Of course, another prudent action is to not to shower or drink any water from a municipal source (also to avoid fluoride as well).

I have heard it is coming from the water that they grow the rice in. Chicken is another big source of arsenic! Many articles on this if you Google it. Unless you buy organic your in trouble. My daughter had a high arsenic level so we switched to quinoa instead of rice and organic chicken.

Good idea to go as fresh and clean as possible, imo. Grass finished – organic – beef, bison, chicken and wild caught salmon — GOOD 🙂 I also purchase organic brown rice products but will NOW look to organic white rice as suggested and or others, like quinoa. Just in case. 🙂

Organic Brown rice is a staple of my diet. I am very physically active and need the carbs. Plus I prepare it traditionally: I soak the rice in water with a splash of kombucha till the rice sprouts, about 24 hrs. This removes most of the phytates and makes it more digestible. I have been assuming the soaking would also remove most of the arsenic? I change the water about every 8 hrs.

I dislike white rice because it has no flavor and I feel like it raises my blood sugar.

Generally, soaking even in water or salt water is beneficial, especially for sprouting. You can use kefir or whey from kefir or yogurt, and I think water kefir should be fine as well. It’s the bacteria in these probiotics that “pre-digests” the food and releases some of the problematic anti-nutrients. Even just rinsing in water every few hours can induce sprouting.

According to this article, the phytates in brown rice bind with the arsenic and form a complex that is not absorbed into the bloodstream, but passed through the colon, meaning the phytates make the arsenic totally benign once conjugated. This article also shows that the amount of arsenic in rice is of little concern at all based on some simple math. Of course it is still wise to get the cleanest rice available – that is, not grown in arsenic-laden soil due to pollution. I think the ultimate way to deal with this dilemma is to get a couple of hair tissue mineral analyses done over time to see what your arsenic levels are based on you rice intake. Just be sure the lab you use processes the sample correctly (many don’t, giving skewed results)http://www.scribd.com/doc/35306361/Stabilized-Rice-Bran-and-the-Arsenic-Myth#scribd